“Germs are more deadly than guns and swords.
“It’s not ‘Guns, Germs, and Steel,’ it’s ‘Guns, Germs, Germs!’”

A grand panorama of 50,000 years of history created by the world's most microscopic things.
We are merely guests invited into this world made of fungi.

"How Fungi Shape the World" is a book that explores the profound impact fungi have had on our lives by examining the history of mankind over approximately 50,000 years, from the era of Homo sapiens, the origin of modern humans, to the recent outbreak of COVID-19, based on the latest research in various fields such as genetics, biology, anthropology, archaeology, economics, and history.
Jonathan Kennedy, the author who is meeting Korean readers for the first time, teaches global public health at Queen Mary University of London, and this book has received much attention from the media and readers in the English-speaking world.
Despite this being the author's first book, his fluent writing and broad, deep perspective, which seamlessly bridge the scientific and humanistic realms, make a surprisingly vast body of material accessible and engaging, will captivate even readers familiar with the subject.
Kennedy, mindful of Jared Diamond, who identified guns, germs, and steel as the three factors that changed the fate of human society, emphasizes that among them, 'germs' are more lethal and powerful than guns and swords, and also than any great man.


“This book features many of Thomas Carlyle’s ‘great men,’ including Alexander the Great, Muhammad, Charlemagne, Martin Luther, and George Washington.
“But these ‘heroes’ did not change the course of history with their genius and strong character; rather, these qualities enabled them to take advantage of the opportunities already created by the deadly epidemic.” (p. 338)

“In terms of military technology, such as guns and iron, the Spanish actually had an advantage over the Native Americans.
However, (omitted) the guns of the conquerors, although they brought about a shocking effect, also had problems.
(Omitted) Primitive muskets took more than a minute to reload, and cannons were difficult to transport across rugged terrain.
(Omitted) Diamond argues that the Aztecs and Incas had never encountered languages ​​before, and that this played a decisive role in the outcome of their invasions.
(Omitted) However, the importance of words should not be exaggerated.
The Spanish army had only a very small number of horses: 16 during Cortés' invasion and 68 during Pizarro's invasion.
(Omitted) So, if guns and steel aren't the reasons why the conquerors were able to conquer Central and South America so decisively, then what is the reason? The answer is simple.
“It’s fungus, fungus, fungus.” (pp. 183-185)

The British daily newspaper The Times said of “How Fungi Shape the World”: “A seamless meeting of science and history.
“A book that readers of Yuval Harari will enjoy,” said Louis Dartnell, author of “On Being Human,” and “It’s exciting and wonderful.”
“From Neolithic diseases to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, we explore the enormous role played by the most microscopic life forms on this planet,” he said in amazement.
The book also received favorable reviews, with the Sunday Times, Amazon, and Goodreads also selecting it as one of the best books of 2023.
Readers who enjoy books like Guns, Germs, and Steel, Sapiens, and Becoming Human will also not be able to ignore this book.


Meanwhile, the introduction of this book includes 32 carefully selected high-quality color illustrations not found in the original book, as an appetizer.
Each illustration is accompanied by a short but informative commentary, providing a useful guide to the broad scope of this book, which explores the powerful influence of fungi from prehistoric times to the present day.

But it is now abundantly clear that microbes are not simply agents of decay, death, and disease.
Over the past few decades, researchers have begun to realize that bacteria and viruses play a wide range of roles essential to the functioning of our planet, our bodies, and even our minds.
Human life, or any form of complex life, is unimaginable without microorganisms.
--- p.11

It is no exaggeration to say that bacteria made the Earth a place where complex life forms, including humans, can exist.
The Earth is a world of bacteria and we are just squatting there.
--- p.15

Not only did we evolve from bacteria, we also acquired essential parts of our genome from viruses.
It's now clear that our bodies, and even our brains, function the way they do thanks in large part to the contributions of microbes that evolved alongside our ancestors.
The discovery that gut microbes can influence our emotions and behavior in subtle but significant ways suggests that humans may not have complete control over their own minds.
--- p.24

Homo sapiens finally developed immunity to Neanderthal diseases between 50,000 and 40,000 years ago, allowing them to migrate out of Africa and north to the Neanderthal regions without contracting serious diseases.
The curse that had made the eastern Mediterranean uninhabitable for tens of thousands of years has been lifted.
As our ancestors migrated deep into Eurasia, they encountered communities of Neanderthals and Denisovans who had never been exposed to African pathogens and had no opportunity to develop resistance.
Within a relatively short period of time, all other human species became extinct, leaving only the newly emerged Homo sapiens to survive.
Our world will never be the same again.
Earth no longer resembled Middle-earth, once inhabited by various human species, and became a planet dominated by Homo sapiens, the species we live on today.
--- p.57

Prehistoric times were marked by waves of large-scale migrations, with new populations moving into an area and almost completely wiping out the previous inhabitants.
Almost always, immigrants unknowingly helped to create an invisible weapon of mass destruction: infectious diseases.
This is because they had some degree of immunity, but the existing local population had little or no resistance.
In addition to new pathogens, Neolithic migrants brought new genes, new languages, and new ideas like agriculture and metallurgy.
In this way, epidemics that occurred thousands of years ago played a significant role in shaping the world we live in today.
--- p.64

Thucydides argues that the plague in Athens had a significant impact on the outcome of the Peloponnesian War.
He comments on the outbreak:
“Nothing has ever done so much damage to the Athenians or so weakened their resolve for war.”
--- p.99

Although endemic diseases killed countless Romans, they also had the surprising advantage of providing a protective shield around the imperial capital against diarrhea and malaria.
Any Roman who survived to adulthood would have developed immunity, but outsiders, including the city's conquerors, were at high risk of illness and death if they stayed too long.
Malaria had been a deterrent to attacks on the empire's capital since the late 3rd century BC, when Hannibal arduously crossed the Alps with an army of 60,000 men, 12,000 horses, and 37 war elephants.
The Carthaginian army defeated the Romans on several occasions.
What stopped the invasion and saved Rome was malaria, which killed Hannibal's wife, son, and many soldiers.
--- p.109

The Roman Empire barely survived the Plague of Cyprian and the Crisis of the Third Century, but the damage was severe.
Rome had been in a state of crisis for a long time, and its national power had weakened.
But the plague's most lasting impact was not political but religious.
The plague transformed a small, obscure Jewish sect on the outskirts of the empire into a major religion today, with 2.3 billion adherents, making up nearly a third of the world's population.
--- p.116

How can we explain Christianity's sudden transformation from a fringe Jewish sect to a popular religion? American sociologist Rodney Stark argues that epidemics are a crucial part of this story.
The Christian faith grew rapidly in the 2nd and 3rd centuries when deadly plagues ravaged the Roman Empire, because it offered a more appealing and certain guide to life and death than polytheism.
--- p.118

When the Catholic Church failed to respond effectively to the trauma of the plague, people began to consider other means of salvation.
Although there had been challenges to the authority and teachings of the Catholic Church before, such ideas did not gain widespread support until the Black Death.
John Wycliffe, an Oxford University priest and theologian born in the 1320s, was at the forefront of the rebellion against religious orthodoxy and church corruption in the late 14th century.
He targeted parish priests who had no time to preach the Gospel and comfort the poor, and the Pope who claimed to be God's representative on earth.
--- p.160~161

As Europeans began to settle in the Caribbean, it was only a matter of time before viruses and bacteria that had evolved in the Old World following the Neolithic Revolution crossed the Atlantic.
Because the Taino had never been exposed to these pathogens in the past, they did not develop resistance.
They became extinct because of the waves of infectious diseases they encountered for the first time.
--- p.187

The Pilgrims led a wave of Puritan immigration from 'Old' England to 'New' England.
Over the next two decades, countless people fled the religious persecution of Charles I, and 21,000 of them settled in North America.
The settlers benefited from another smallpox outbreak in 1630, which they almost certainly introduced.
The disease halved the remaining Native American population in Massachusetts.
--- p.204

On New Year's Day 1804, the rebels proclaimed the birth of a new nation called Haiti.
The name comes from the Taino word for the island of Hispaniola.
The French defeat by Haitian rebels and the island's mosquitoes contributed significantly to the formation of the modern world as it is today.
--- p.258

So what should we do? The best way for humanity to survive the threat of pathogens as a species is to cooperate with one another.
Contrary to William McNeill's claim, the dramatic improvements in health in high-income countries in the 19th and 20th centuries were not due to advances in medicine.
It wasn't even a result of economic growth itself.
Rather, it was the result of political decisions to invest heavily in water, sanitation, housing, and poverty reduction.

--- p.344